The present invention relates to a interactive television system formed by televisions each having a program broadcast receiving function and response servers to which the receivers are connected through communication lines, and more particular to a TV mail system for sending and receiving electronic mails to and from the televisions.
Recently, the advancement of the performance of television for home use results in techniques for using the television being attracted attention as a part of multimedia field. At present, teletext broad casting has been put into practical use, the teletext being a technology in which a multiplicity of programs multiplied on broadcasting waves are, by the receiver side, selectively received in accordance with the needs for the receiver side and converted into television video signals so as to be displayed on the television screen.
By using the technique of the teletext, a multiplicity of teletext programs and programs in the form of static or dynamic images can arbitrarily be presented to viewers in addition to usual television broadcast. For example, a commodity, the commercial film of which is being broadcast, and a method of purchasing the same can be broadcast by a teletext program multiplied on the television program above.
However, since the conventional television broadcast system one-way presents information from the broadcast station to viewers through televisions, selective display of supplementary information of a commodity required by a user among a plurality of commodities presented in a program, or calling viewers during the program to real-time add up responses from the viewers to reflect the response to the contents of the program cannot be performed.
In order to realize a bi-directional program (hereinafter called a "bi-directional program") with which not only one-way presenting information from the presenter of a program to viewers can be performed but also viewers are permitted to return responses to the program, it might be feasible to employ a interactive television (hereinafter called a "interactive television") having a function capable of accepting response data through the television from which a television program is being broadcast to send data above to an accumulation center (a response server).
However, the television adapted to the teletext broadcasting is arranged to perform only one-way information transmission such that programs transmitted from a broadcast station are presented for viewers. As described above, use of the television of the foregoing type has been limited.
As described above, since the television for home use is arranged to perform only one-directional information communication such that programs are presented to viewers, use of the television of this type has been limited.